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The overhead of the multi-vendor approach

"If the "best of breed" solutions are all very "different" there may be a great deal of training and overhead that may not be there if they are all from a smaller set of vendors with a similar "technology"." Richard Bragg. During a recent LinkedIn Group discussion about the comparisons of Best-of-breed versus single-vendor OSS approaches, Richard Bragg made the insightful comment above. In addition to…

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29/06/2014 2 Comments

Network and system regression testing

"Regression testing means re-testing an application after its code has been modified to verify that it still functions correctly. Regression testing consists of re-running existing test cases and checking that code changes did not break any previously working functions, inadvertently introduce errors or cause earlier fixed issues to reappear. These test cases should be run as often as possible with an automated regression testing tool, so…

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28/06/2014 2 Comments

Play (P4) selects Comverse ONE

Play Poland (P4) Selects Comverse ONE Converged BSS to Power Real-Time Service Capabilities, New LTE Functionalities. Comverse announced that Play (P4), Poland’s fastest growing mobile communication service provider, has selected the Comverse ONE Converged Billing & Active Customer Management solution to support expansion of services and functionalities for its advanced 4G/LTE network serving a rapidly growing subscriber base. Upgrading to the new Comverse ONE product line…

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28/06/2014 No Comments

Reconciling automations

"We are made out of oppositions; we live between two poles. There is a philistine and an aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint. You don't reconcile the poles. You just recognize them." Orson Welles. One of the holy grails of OSS - automation - has many forms. Whether it is in flow-through provisioning, self-healing networks, advanced event filtering, etc. They are…

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27/06/2014 No Comments

The brain scans of high IQ people

"What would we expect to find if we exam­ined the brain scans of peo­ple with high ver­sus aver­age IQ scores? We might pic­ture the active brain of an Ein­stein as a hotbed of smol­der­ing col­ors ”but we’d be wrong. Neu­rol­o­gist Richard Restak sum­ma­rized a UCLA study that com­pared indi­vid­u­als with high IQs to those with aver­age IQs. Restak wrote, The researchers started off with the seem­ingly…

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26/06/2014 No Comments

Vodafone Germany selects Redknee

Redknee Supports Virtualization Strategy for Vodafone Germany. Redknee Solutions Inc. is enabling Tier 1 network operators to implement their virtualization strategies. Redknee offers an end-to-end cloud-based solution with a business model that gives service providers flexibility to differentiate and grow their business, while minimizing the investment risk and optimizing total cost of ownership (TCO). Redknee’s agile approach to virtualization enables the smooth migration of legacy services…

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26/06/2014 No Comments

Telenor Norway selects TCS

Telenor Norway has selected Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) as its partner to modernize and simplify the fixed network operations. The goal is to improve customer experience through reduced complexity and faster deliveries. Telenor Norway has launched a long-term effort to modernize and simplify products, processes and related IT systems in the fixed area. On 24th June, Telenor Norway signed a contract with TCS as a…

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25/06/2014 No Comments

OSS Epiphanies

"Solving a problem with insight is fundamentally different from solving a problem analytically. There really are different brain mechanisms involved." John Kounios in this article on the WSJ. I love reading articles such as the one above, gaining a better understanding of how our brains function and how to prime them for greater results for a variety of different activities. It also relates to why I…

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25/06/2014 No Comments

No laughing please

"A worker named John Gallo was discharged after a “spotter” caught him “smiling” with co-workers after being warned earlier about “laughing with the other fellows."" Steven Watts in "The People's Tycoon." This quote relates to Henry Ford's policy of allowing no laughing, talking or smiling on his assembly lines from his belief that these distractions caused efficiency degradation. Sometimes the intensity of OSS projects can cast…

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24/06/2014 No Comments

Menatelecom selects Elitecore

Elitecore enables Menatelecom to offer the first Nationwide 4G/LTE service in the kingdom of Bahrain. Elitecore Technologies announced that its LTE revenue and customer management platform has successfully enabled Menatelecom, Bahrain to implement its LTE Network roll-out in coexistence with its ongoing WiMAX Network. Supporting up to 200,000 subscribers, Elitecore platform has supported complete WiMAX-to-LTE Transformation for Menatelecom by upgrading the existing Elitecore WiMAX platform to…

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24/06/2014 No Comments

Do you need a Solutions Integrator

"When integrators bid on a deal, deployment [using an ALF] tool will be easier because you're not tied to any proprietary standard.." Kevin Parker. Mikey, a reader of PAOSS, recently asked a great set of questions, as follows: "What do you think are the biggest challenges in a multi-vendor OSS. More importantly, did you see the need for a Solution Integrator (SI) or did having a…

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23/06/2014 No Comments

Shackleton the OSS explorer

"Superhuman effort isn't worth a damn unless it achieves results." Sir Ernest Shackleton. Whilst doing some other research, I just stumbled upon this job advertisement placed  by Sir Ernest Shackleton* It seems that he was involved in OSS implementations as well as polar explorations! :) PS. If you don't know who Sir Ernest Shackleton was, you can check out his story here on Wikipedia. * It seems…

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21/06/2014 No Comments

The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

"[Hermann Ebbinghaus's] forgetting curve describes the exponential loss of information that one has learned. The sharpest decline occurs in the first twenty minutes and the decay is significant through the first hour. The curve levels off after about one day." Wikipedia. As discussed in Ted Gannan's recent blog, "Job-related training is an exercise in helping people develop memories in the hope that the things they learn…

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20/06/2014 No Comments

Redknee receives Tier 1 Operator order

Redknee Receives $9 Million Dollar Order from Tier 1 Operator in Asia Pacific. Redknee Solutions Inc. announced that a leading communications service provider (CSP) in Asia Pacific has signed a $9 million dollar agreement with Redknee to increase its software licenses, services and support. The increase is part of the CSP’s strategy to support the growth of its 4G/LTE network. This significant agreement highlights Redknee’s expertise…

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20/06/2014 No Comments

Zain selects Nokia OSS

Nokia helps Zain Kuwait simplify operations through complete OSS transformation. Zain Kuwait is taking a significant step toward the complete transformation of its operations support systems (OSS) to become more customer-centric. To achieve this, the operator has commissioned Nokia to deploy its unique OSS portfolio using its comprehensive services. These will enable the operator to simplify network operations by having a total network view with centralized…

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20/06/2014 No Comments

Telekom Malaysia selects Accenture

Accenture Helps Telekom Malaysia Transform Its Delivery of Data Services to Enterprises. Accenture has helped Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), the nation’s largest integrated communications solutions provider, transform its delivery of data services for enterprises with the implementation of support systems for TM’s Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IPVPN) capabilities. Leveraging Accenture’s systems integration capabilities, both TM’s business support systems – such as customer relationship management, billing,…

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20/06/2014 No Comments

Product and Service Lifecycle Management

"Life is full of surprises and serendipity. Being open to unexpected turns in the road is an important part of success. If you try to plan every step, you may miss those wonderful twists and turns." Condoleeza Rice. Product and Service Lifecycle Management (PSLM) can be a key differentiator* for competing CSPs. In turn, the effective management of PSLM can be a key differentiator for OSS…

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19/06/2014 No Comments

Yay! 100+ countries

Yay! I just did a check on my analytics page and noticed that people from more than 100 countries have now visited PassionateAboutOSS.com. Thanks one and all!

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19/06/2014 No Comments

Cisco to acquire Tail-f

Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire Tail-f — Acquisition Advances Cisco’s Cloud Virtualization Portfolio with Industry-Leading Network Service Orchestration Technology. Cisco announced its intent to acquire privately held Tail-f Systems, a leader in multi-vendor network service orchestration solutions for traditional and virtualized networks. Tail-f’s products help service providers and enterprise IT organizations easily and cost-effectively implement applications, network services and solutions across networking devices. Headquartered in Stockholm,…

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18/06/2014 No Comments

Workflow engines

"While humans are not good at processing systems models, we are much better at analysing and designing them. This leads to a natural human-computer partnership." Mark Zangari. In yesterday's blog we discussed a lecture by Mark Zangari about Decision Support Systems (DSS). Mark's quote above is a really interesting one in the context of CSP process design. Humans are indeed quite proficient at designing workflows and…

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18/06/2014 No Comments

Decision Support System (DSS) efficiencies

"Unlike data, there is little mainstream computerised support for modelling and analysing systems." Mark Zangari in his lecture to San Francisco Uni. As Mark Zangari points out, there are many different tools for assisting our brains to process data (who could've missed all the hype about Big Data tools for example or Business Intelligence or Data Mining, etc), but there aren't so many decision support tools…

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17/06/2014 No Comments